Not Never
by NvrEndngStry
Summary: Little bits about how Pema and Tenzin came together. I love them. This is my first fic and started as a 20-minute writing challenge with my partner. I want to add to it, but I dunno how it might develop. I'm going to rate it T for now, just to be safe. I hope you like it :-)
1. Chapter 1

**_Pema 16, Tenzin:31_**

She flattened herself against the beam and tried to slow her breathing.

_Pema, snap out of it!_

She heard Memoo's voice in her head.

_Pema, snap out of it! It's untoward. When you're older and he's an old man, you'll see what I mean, and you'll marvel at just how many boys your age you ignored goggling him._

Pema straightened, helped by the wooden pillar…the one she was hiding behind…yeah.

"Pem," she said aloud. "Snap out of it."

She released the beam, ignoring the fear that welled up at giving up her hiding place. She stepped to the side of it, careful to stay in the shadows. There he was. Sitting, meditating, his mouth set in a firm line. How could somebody manage to look so stuffy and so relaxed at the same time? She sighed.

"Just the magic of Tenzin, huh? Control-freak Victorian. Airbending free-spirit. Physical embodiment of all that the Acolytes hold dear. Shit…" She huffed the last part louder than she meant to and gasped, slapping her hand to her mouth.

What if Memoo had heard? What if another Acolyte were near? She imagined her aunt's horrified expression…and snorted back a giggle. Knowing herself and how easily she could slide from a little chuckle into an outright belly laugh, she sucked in her bottom lip and, closing her eyes against the image of her aunt's cross face, chewed softly until she felt her cheeks relax and her composure return. Grateful for the second of levity, she opened her eyes and stared straight into the gray of Tenzin's.

_Oh. Spirits. No._

Her feet were already carrying her backwards to the door when she remembered why she had come here in the first place. She had to tell him. Tenzin's voice, smooth from meditation, rose above her own thoughts.

"Pema. What are you doing back there?"

_Now or never, Pema._

She stepped from the shadows into the dappled light of the room. Outright or bury the lead?

_Well, Tenzin, I followed you here to the med room of the family quarters where I have absolutely no business being to tell you that I'm in love with you, BUT I got distracted watching you meditate._

Unacceptable.

"I came to see you, I mean, IF you…needed anything." She was a miserable coward. What was more, she knew he wasn't buying it.

"Well, you're here anyway, aren't you," he said, chuckling a little. She relaxed a bit. His smile was so disarming, and she thought, _Why don't you do that more?_

"Do what?" Tenzin asked, startling her. She panicked. _Too much time alone in the library talking to the books, Pem. You don't even know when you're thinking aloud anymore. _

Remembering her bungled excuse for being there, she decided to just go with it.

_Now or never._

"Smile," she said, trying for a casual shrug as she walked over to a bench just off the wide mat.

Tenzin bristled. "I smile," he said flatly.

"Oh, yeah, you're a real Jolly Jeong," Pema replied with a soft smirk. He smiled at the sarcasm, to her relief.

"I'm…sorry about that. Guess that meditation didn't smooth as many edges as I thought."

"It's okay. I know how it must have sounded. It's just that, well, you should. Smile more, I mean. It's good for you. I read it in one of Avatar Aang's essays from…" She looked up from her lap and trailed off. Tenzin's eyes were on the mat, his brow slightly furrowed. She bit her lip and said, "You know, I'm available for practice if you'd like."

His brow quirked quizzically, but when he raised his eyes they weren't steely, so she continued.

"For example, now is an okay time to try it. See, what happens is when you catch a girl's eye and she smiles, you smile back…?"

She smiled softly at him and watched him watch her for a few humming seconds. Just as she started wishing for the refuge of the beam, he cast his eyes away from hers and grinned. Relieved, she laughed.

"See? That wasn't so hard. Geez," she added with mock exasperation, and reached out to finger-thump his shoulder.

He leaned away, still smiling.

"Hey, now, no hitting. I'm a monk, remember? Physical embodiment of all that the Acolytes hold dear… and shit…"

Pema's mouth hung open and her eyes widened comically. Tenzin heard her whisper "Oh, spirits…" as he closed his eyes and laughed aloud for the first time all day.

"Tenzin, stop it! Oh, no. Oh, I'm so embarrassed. Please don't tell Memoo!" She got up to run away and he caught her hand, still laughing.

"Wait, wait," he said, sucking in air. "Wait! I thought we were having smile practice."

Pema didn't yank away as she wanted to, knowing that manners demanded that she not leave when one of the family was addressing her. She tried to calm her features and turned to look down at him on the mat. She avoided his eyes, looking instead at his head, focusing on the blue of his tattoo and the pale green of the veins beneath his skin. He gave her hand –Spirits, he was still touching her- an easy tug, and she met his eyes. He was looking -no, smiling- up at her, his eyelashes damp from his laughter, his eyes shining with it.

"Come on, Pema…remember: what happens is when a guy is smiling at you…"

Pema laughed and smiled down at him.

"Yeah, yeah, Jolly Jeong."

He laughed again and, releasing her, stood to put on his shoes. That was twice that he'd laughed.

_Maybe not now, but not never._


	2. Chapter 2

_**3 Years Later**_

"Happy birthday, Tenzin!" Lin rushed around Tenzin's desk and gave him a smacking kiss. He hugged her, his golden button clicking against her uniform.

"What are you doing here," he asked, happy with the surprise.

"Well," she huffed, flopping onto his desk, "you're officially old now, and I wanted to be sure you weren't going to heave the last airbender out of the window of this fancy office in despair."

Tenzin rolled his eyes but gave a lopsided grin and said blandly, "You're such a sweetheart."

"Aren't I, though?" She laughed, leaning forward and walking her fingers up his shoulders. Pushing him back in the chair, she eased into his lap and whispered "Happy 34, Ten."

"Thanks, Lin." He took her hand in one of his, her face in the other, wanting to touch her skin despite the uniform. He rubbed his lips over hers, and relished her sigh. She so rarely sighed anymore.

_Ten and Lin_, he thought, smiling in the kiss. _The first metalbender's daughter and the son of the last airbender. The last airbender. I guess that's me now._

Lin felt his attention shift and pulled away to look at him. "What is it?"

"Nothing. Just work. Even with a beautiful woman in my lap, it's hard to flip the switch."

"Well." Lin stiffened and started to stand.

"It's hard," Tenzin repeated, moving his hands to her waist and bending a little air down the collar of her uniform. She'd been encased in metal 6 days a week for the past 9 years. He'd figured out more than a few ways under the shell. When she pressed against him, he skimmed his teeth along her jaw.

"Not impossible, Lin." Pushing more wisps of air against the skin he couldn't reach, he tapped at her waist lightly and murmured, "Open it." She hesitated and he put his lips to her ear.

"Just a little. Let me touch you."

She shivered a little, but the uniform remained shut. Patient, Tenzin nibbled her lips and slid his hands along the metal as if it were silk clinging to her curved frame. He heard the first band give a hard clink and had just enough time to smile smugly before the Fire Nation clerk burst through the door.

"Tenzin! We've gotta pr—Oh!" Lin stood quickly and lifted a brow at the breathless man clinging to the door frame.

"Sorry! Hi! I should have knocked. I should have—"

"Orzan," Tenzin interrupted, his voice even despite his blushing ears, "what's the problem?"

"Problem?" Orzan babbled, staring at Lin. She was quite a sight. "Yes! Oh, man, do we have a problem! You have to come to the council chambers. Councilman Faris just tried to challenge Judge Bang to an Agni Kai over the boy who testified against the Triple Threats last week! The Judge is an earthbender!" Orzan practically wailed it.

"Danik? That little waterbending bully turned snitch," Lin asked incredulously. "What's there to fight about? He's in juvie where he should be. He got the reduced time for squawking."

"His mother's not satisfied with the reduction," Orzan said and threw his hand in the air.

"His MOTHER? Where was she when that twerp was shaking down his classmates for the Threats?"

"Orzan," Tenzin said, hoping his calm tone might quell Lin's oncoming rant, "why don't you fill me in on the situation while we walk to the chamber?"

"Why don't you fill BOTH of us in, Orzan. What?" she asked when the men looked at her. "I was the arresting officer on that kid's case. I'd like to know what's happening."

"You know," Tenzin said, considering. "Bang fought in Earth Rumble as a youngster. If he's as mad as Orzan says, we might need some law enforcement."

To Orzan's credit, he swallowed the squeak of fear lodged in his throat before heading out of the office behind Tenzin and a laughing Lin.

**BREAK**

"You're a backwards, inbred, high-minded fire fop, and you'd lose your fancy lunch at just the telling of some of what this boy has seen!" The judge's voice boomed down the corridor leading to the chamber.

"High-minded! High-minded?! That's rich, coming from some dirt-lurker who learned to hold chopsticks in his 20s!"

Tenzin pushed open the door and saw the wide eyes of the Earth Kingdom clerk. She was sitting at a small table beside the judge's desk and doing her best to avoid the steam coming off of Councilman Faris without abandoning her post altogether.

The councilman continued, leaning further across Judge Bang's desk, "I knew it was a mistake to bring you into the sentencing deliberations. I KNEW it," he repeated, sweeping his glower back to the other councilmembers.

"So, it's a mistake to bring the overseeing judge for all juvenile court cases in when sentencing a juvenile? Chu-Lee," Bang said to his assistant. "Please draft a memo of this buffoonery so that there will be no future mistakes."

"Sir," she replied and caught Tenzin's eyes. _Help me_, she mouthed.

As Tenzin and Lin walked toward the fray, the councilman screeched, "A MISTAKE when said judge is a reformed hooligan with the heart of an Air Temple nanny and a head full of idealistic garbage!"

"Gentlemen," Lin said, using the same tone that Tenzin had used to stop her tirade in his office. "Gentlemen. I have it on good faith that no Air Temple nannies will be allowed into the council chambers in the near future. We may, however, need to discuss the presence of Republic City Police guards should the non-benders in the room feel threatened..."

At Lin's words, Tenzin eyed Faris, then Chu-Lee, and Faris again. Councilman Faris, catching the hint at length, pulled away from the judge's desk and steamed -literally- back to his and Orzan's abandoned station.

"Alright." The word came from Councilwoman Tass. "The theatrics are over, so this seems to be a good time for a recess. Since the original proposition has been defended and passed the vote, I request that Chu Lee draft a memo of the judge's revamped sentence for the boy and deliver it to us the day before the new hearing. The boy and his mother and new guardian will sit before this council—a council of _adults_, in three days." Taking the labored silence as agreement, the silver-haired woman stood gracefully and narrowed her eyes at Bang and Faris. "I should have iced both your fool heads," she said and swept out, her clerk at her heels.

As the other members and staff cleared the room, Judge Bang dropped into his chair and put his fists to his forehead.

"Tenzin."

"Judge?"

"If you've some time now, I'd like to see you in my office with Chu Lee."

"Yes, judge. I'll check with Councilman Gotek to be sure he-"

"Go," Gotek interrupted his clerk. "Get this mess over with, I beg you. And, Bang, don't keep the boy all night. It's his birthday, for crying out loud."


End file.
